Thai-Inspired Hydrating Cucumber Salad with Roasted Spiced Chickpeas

Well, I’m back from a couple whirlwind weekends of travel to the West coast. My mom, sister, and I had a fantastic time in San Francisco soaking up each other’s company and plenty of glorious California sunshine. My skin has gone from ghostly white to slightly not ghostly white with a hint of funky sandal tan lines. Success. After the conference in Portland, my sleep-deprived self came down with a bad cold the day before I traveled to SF, so I was a sniffling and sneezing mess during most of the second trip. Luckily, my loving travel companions, the sunny blue skies, and plenty of food & wine helped me heal. Ok, maybe not the wine part, but when in Napa…

I must say, it’s been a shock to my system to be back to my normal work routine. It’s always good to be home though. I returned with plenty of fun recipe inspiration, some of which you’ll likely see on the blog in the weeks to come and some of which I might sneak into the book if I can find the time (and do so without my editor killing me!). Either way, it’s true what they say – a break is always good for the creative spirit. Being in this type of work, I tend to constantly struggle with ebbs and flows of the creative process, especially during recent intense months. I’m only now realizing that sometimes stepping away and being less productive is exactly the thing I need to be more productive. Or at least that made total sense to me after a couple glasses of wine.

[photo credit: Eric Liddon]

We dined at a Thai restaurant in SF called Thai House 530 on our last evening. I ordered the cucumber salad as an appetizer and the Pineapple Fried Rice (made vegan) for my main. The salad reminded me of sweet and sour pickles (a childhood favourite!) and I just couldn’t get enough of the tangy, sweet combo and the hydrating cucumbers. What a lovely way to start a meal. After devouring the salad I made a mental note to give this salad a whirl once home. I’ll probably need a couple days until I’m ready to tackle more involved cooking feats, but this simple recipe was a great way to ease back into it all.

My version of this salad is more tangy/acidic while the restaurant version was much more on the sweet side. I generally tend to prefer more acid in my dishes, but you can decide for yourself if you’d like to add more sweetener to balance it out. The beauty of this simple rice vinegar and sugar dressing is that you can adjust it easily. I also threw in a handful of cilantro and topped it with chopped peanuts which are both encouraged additions. Some recipes also include a diced jalapeno pepper, but I decided to leave it out. Feel free to add one if you’d prefer some heat.

To make it a protein-packed meal, I roasted chickpeas in a garlic, cumin, ginger, chili, and turmeric spice mix. The roasted chickpeas are a nice option if you want to take this salad from an appetizer to a main course (I enjoyed it for lunch!), but the salad is nice on its own too.

1. Whisk dressing ingredients together in a small bowl and adjust to taste. Feel free to add more sweetener if you prefer. Set aside.

2. Peel cucumbers, slice off the ends, and slice in half lengthwise. Scoop out the seeds with a small spoon (see photo in post if necessary). Slice halves into 1/8-inch “half moons” and toss into a large bowl. If your cucumbers are really big you can slice the half-moons in half as well.

3. Dice the red pepper and red onion and add into bowl. Roughly chop cilantro and add into bowl. Pour in all the dressing and toss to combine. Let this salad sit for about 30 minutes in the fridge, tossing every 10 minutes or so to help the dressing soak in.

5. Roast at 400F for 20 minutes. Give the pan a gentle shake to stir the chickpeas and roast for another 15-20 minutes, until golden and lightly charred on the bottom. I roast for a full 40 minutes because I like them on the crispy side, but keep an eye on them as oven temps vary.

6. Cool for 5 minutes or so and then top on your salad. They will lose their crispness quickly so these are best enjoyed immediately. You can also freeze the chickpeas once fully cooled and reheat them in the oven for 5 minutes or so to bring back the crispness.

I made this salad last night and it was fantastic. I didn’t skip any of the ingredients and am glad I didn’t-it was the combo of every single thing that made it delicious. I also couldn’t stop grazing on the chick peas after they came out of the oven ;) I followed your advice and threw the leftover chick peas in the freezer-heated them for five minutes in the oven to crisp them up and had my leftovers for lunch today. Loved this dish!!

This sounds amazing! I just pinned the recipe and will definitely try it out!

I was out of town this weekend, but so excited when I saw your instagram photo with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background. Did you walk along Crissy Field and under the bridge? We’ve been doing that walk on nice weekends. You can make it short or go towards Baker Beach for a longer walk.

I was struggling with ideas for what to eat tonight when this appeared in my blog reader… thanks for putting together something with the few ingredients I actually have in the house! It looks delicious. I think I may use up an apple with it too.

This recipe looks delicious!! The photos are gorgeous and I know it will be delicious because everything I’ve tried so far has been amazing.
I have to watch my sodium intake due to a health condition, so I was super excited to see the salad only had 40mg sodium/serving. But looking at the recipe more closely, i think it may be a typo. 1/2 tsp salt generally has 1000-1200mg sodium, so a single serving of the salad would be more like 300-400mg, and that’s without the dressing. The dressing is made with another half tsp salt, so a serving of salad + dressing would be 600-800mg. And that’s assuming the roasted peanuts are not salted as well.
I dream of a day that I don’t have to count my milligrams! The great thing about your recipes is that I’ve been able to adjust the salt down and still enjoy lots of flavor with the other additions you’ve included.

Hi Peggy! My bad – I forgot to add the salt. I’ve updated the nutritional info. Thanks so much for pointing that out! Must get sleep…
Hope you enjoy and yes feel free to tweak the salt to your own needs :)

What a gorgeous salad! Honestly, how amazing are the colors?! It looks so refreshing. I’m with you, I’d much rather the acidic side than the sweet. Next time I’m in SFO I’m definitely checking out that Thai restaurant!

I can totally relate to the shock of getting back into your normal routine, too. Those breaks are incredibly good for the mind, body, and spirit, and it’s amazing what sort of things can be done after a bit of respite. I used to refuse to take breaks (did I set up a page protector filled with verb charts when I was doing language immersion, and then stick that thing on the far side of the shower so I could drill verb conjugations while shampooing? Yes, I did.), but I found that this only exhausted me further and made me less able to retain information. Once I embraced the beauty of a break — a chat with friends over a glass of wine, a quick run through some green space, or even just a cat nap — I realized that they’re actually totally necessary. :)

All that being said, I’m glad your Napa trip was so restorative! Hang in there with this final push on the cookbook — you’ve got lots of people cheering you on from afar. :)

Welcome home, Ange! Hopefully you’ve got a couple of quiet weekends coming up so you can chill out a bit. It sounds like you’ve had some great trips (and meals!) over the last coule of weeks. I’m a huge sucker for all things Thai-inspired so sign me up for this salad!

So fun that you were able to do some traveling and I love San Fran. Every time I go I wish I could live in NorCal rather than SoCal…for like, a minute, until I get that COLD San Fran air compared to San Diego :) But the restaurants, culture, and just everything about SF is amazing.

Your recreation of the salad is amazing, too! And the photos are stunning. And that rustic table? I would give my right arm for that. Gorgeous!

I live in the SF East Bay Area and am always inspired by all of the fantastic restaurants here! This salad looks incredible. I haven’t tried roasted chickpeas but I need to ASAP because they sounds so good!